Mars fromSaturday morning - 05.12.09

[legion48]

I had to do a Friday night shift again, same as last week. This time though, it rained pretty much all night till about 05:30 when the skies cleared. Driving home at 05:45 I could see Mars and the moon looking very appealing in the sky with not a cloud to be seen, so of course when I got home I set up. Of course, by 6:30 when I finally popped an eyepiece in and looked up to see where Mars was it had gone. So had the moon. Solid cloud.

Ah rats! I wasn't ready to give up yet though, I figured if it can cloud over that quickly it can clear just as quickly. I stood there waiting and after 15 minutes or so some small breaks appeared in the clouds, enough to give a tantalizing visual glimpse of Mars but not long enough to get stacked x2 and x4 barlows and a webcam on it.

After another 10 minutes a big clear patch became apparent below and to the left of Mars. The very slight prevailing wind was pushing this gap toward where Mars was situated so I decided to stick it out.

Just after 07:00, with the sky beginning to brighten Mars finally broke through the clouds.

[barkis]

Hi Tony.

You have a fine result here, even under difficult conditions.

Mars is heading into prominence now, and many more opportunities for scopes and cameras. Details are plainly seen, so a worthwhile

result mate. Nice one.

Ron.

[legion48]

Thanks Karlo. I'm think I'm going to have to look for a motor focuser as I'm having real trouble getting anywhere near good focus lately.

[beamish]

that's okay ???

Feels good to catch it though and good on yer for sticking it out !

nxt couple of months promise sooo much

[neil phillips]

Be very obsessive about cool down Tony, ive encountered the blured edge a lot on mars, both last year, and this year, especially this year.

Because of the effects of heat pulling on the image it often does this on a small mars were it becomes more noticable. Focus problems (assuming good collimation) often blur all the way around, not on one edge, the culprit is likely heat, or collimation, My SCT had this problem recently yet the lunar images look smack on. Although in my case i need to study collimation more after exstensive cooldown to rule that out.

It is true that more precise focusing will help the problems mentioned, meaning instead of a 3 mm blur to one side you might get a 1mm blur, But of course the aim is no blur at all.

So Collimate and cooldown is what you need to be thinking about. When you focus on Mars Tony look for the slight blured edge, then keep refocusing untill you can get that edge as close to the planets disk as possible. After that im afraid your right back to cooldown and collimation again. Hope any of this is informative. And nice shot syrtis clearly showing there.

[legion48]

Thanks Neil. Cool down shouldn't be a problem as the scope is kept in an outside shed but collimation? ~ shudder ~ I think I'm going to have to give it a try.

[Clayton]

Great shot tony! got some good details

[russ]

Excellent work Tony, you've captured some really good detail.

I use the Skywatcher Autofocus, which works well enough. And is cheap.

[legion48]

Excellent work Tony, you've captured some really good detail.

I use the Skywatcher Autofocus, which works well enough. And is cheap.

I want to get one of those Russ, I just need to find out if it will fit as my 8 inch newt has a Moonlight CR1 focuser.

[russ]

Oh, that could be a problem. I know they fit the Skywatcher Crayford now but i think you would have to modify it heavily to fit a moonlight crayford. I guess the Moonlight electric focuser is megabucks?

[geoff_k]

Tony

Very impressive so early on as it were.

There are really good shots of the Red Planet coming out and yours is no exception.

I would second the comment about cool-down. I put the scope up quickly the other night to take a look at Mars and I would have had to wait a while longer if I had wanted to image it.

Geoff

[Taff]

Hi Tony' very nice capture of mars.Mark